Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Mule Day

Saturday, my husband got home early from work and I spontaneously decided that we should head out to Mule Day in Columbia, TN.

I should have dressed him in his Carharts, but I forgot we could fit into those now!

Side note: For all of you non-southerns out there, a mule is a cross between a horse and a donkey. If you are an obstinate person you might be referred to as "stubborn as a mule".

Events started somewhere around 10AM or so and the Garmin had us getting there around 12. Now, I knew this thing was a big deal, but I had NO IDEA that we would be stuck in 2 hour traffic trying to park. Ooops. I blame it on bad city planning and the TOTAL lack of cops directing traffic.

Thankfully I have the best baby in the world who behaved the entire time. He got fussy just a bit, reason being........soaked pants! Thanks traffic. We did a mini change while we were at a complete stop. Probably not legal, but I mean really, there was no hope in sight for the traffic coming to an end and I was DANG sure not pulling off and starting over again. So I did what any rational mom would do who had dressed her little boy cutely before leaving the house....got his daddy to hang the pants out the window of the truck to dry. Sure we got some looks, but the spare outfit I had wasn't near as cute!

Don't judge...sometimes you do what you have to do. He found this very entertaining for about a minute.

Once we got there we quickly discovered we were in fried food heaven! Fried pickles, fried mushrooms, fried cheesecake, fried pies, pork rinds, ribbon fries, funnel cakes, corn dogs, turkey legs....you name it they had it. We walked the whole place before we decided what to eat.

After we got our BOX of food we found a nice grassy spot to sit and watch one of the shows.

Apparently it was a mule judging. There wasn't really any narration (which would have made it a lot more entertaining) but there was the random mule noises (yeah I'm sure you know what I'm talking about) and the occassional mule wrangling that needed to take place due to their...ahem, stubboness.

Ethan was thoroughly entertained. I think he's going to be a people watcher like his mommy.

After we all got done gorging ourselves, we decided to check out arena number two...mule pulling. We walked around until we found a front row bleacher seat. We hauled the stroller up the stairs and were joined shortly afterwards by two very docile Dobberman's. Let's just say we weren't disturbed at all during the show. Apparently a baby and two dobberman's aren't attractive seat mates.

Please ignore pantless baby...they were still air drying. Did I mention I forgot the bag of diapers. Yeah, I did. Thankfully I had a couple of disposables stashed in our bag. Mother of the year over here!

So, mule pulling. It involves two mules attached to a cart full of cinderblocks, a bunch of handlers, and inmates who load the cart. Yeah...stop the presses...I said inmates.

Striped Jumpsuit = Inmate

Odd? Yes. Did I mention the lack of policeman? Did I also mention they were WANDERING around to collect garbage? In all fariness, I noticed nothing fishy going on, but still........odd.

Back to mule pulling. The object of the game is to see which pair of mules can pull the most weight. I don't know what the largest amount is, but we saw one team pull 5,100 lbs. Wow!

They actually had an announcer for this arena which made it sooooo much more entertaining. Now I didn't grow up too far from Columbia, TN, but they were country even for me. Another oddity, they cheered on the handlers instead of the mules? I mean really what were these guys doing besides yelling at the mules and running around with their cracks hanging out (yes, multiple cracks were spotted).
﻿

"Go Ray, Ray!"

﻿After we'd gotten our fill of all that action, we headed out to the craft area where you buy anything from homemade jam to heart shaped rock candles. Then we decided to get ourselves funnel cakes because we hadn't yet met our calorie count for the day.

We enjoyed some music from local bands then headed on our merry way. The experience was an unusal one, but I think a good time was had by all.

HI! I'M LAURA.

Once a Martha Stewart wanna-be, now stay-at-home mom, I find myself living in a world of sticky floors and excellently cropped photos. I'm a perfectionist at heart, ungracefully succumbing to the reality of motherhood. I don't do drop-overs, but here you are always welcomed. So, sit back, laugh, cry, but most importantly enjoy this realistic ride called life of two with me.